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Troubleshooting

Start with the first unexpected message in the log. A later Broken pipe warning often describes a process that has already failed rather than the original cause.

Collect useful logs

The default command keeps Hermes messages visible and reduces Servo noise:

make run

For a closer look:

make run RUST_LOG="talaria_servo=debug,servo=info"

Include the command, the first relevant error, your Linux distribution, display session, GPU, and the affected URL in a report. Remove personal URLs and tokens first.

A page stays blank

Check whether the tab title or address changed.

  • Nothing changes: inspect network, URL parsing, TLS, and startup errors.
  • The title changes but the page is blank: loading and script execution probably succeeded, while the frame was not painted.
  • A first-frame message appears: inspect the graphics context and compositor path.

Hermes deliberately uses Servo's single-process mode because the embedded cross-process Paint path in Servo 0.4.0 loads pages without displaying them. If your log says content-process isolation is enabled, you are not running the supported configuration from this repository.

The browser opens on the wrong GPU

Hermes removes an inherited DRI_PRIME value before graphics or media threads start. Mesa and the desktop session choose the default adapter.

If rendering still uses the wrong device, inspect system-level Mesa configuration instead of adding a process-global override inside Hermes. Include glxinfo -B or the Wayland equivalent in the report when available.

Media does not play

  1. Confirm the page is using a direct media resource rather than Media Source Extensions.
  2. Verify playbin3, the audio sink, and the required decoder with gst-inspect-1.0.
  3. Run with detailed media logging.
  4. Test the media URL in a small native GStreamer pipeline when possible.

YouTube is a known compatibility gap and is not a useful first test of the GStreamer backend.

Build fails while compiling Servo

  • Confirm that stable Rust is active with rustup show active-toolchain.
  • Run make doctor to check the basic toolchain.
  • Re-run make install-linux-deps on an apt-based Linux system.
  • Check free disk space; Servo's native dependencies are large.
  • Keep Cargo.lock unchanged and use the project's locked dependency graph.

GLib cannot find a home directory

Warnings such as getpwuid_r(): failed or HOME is not set come from a process environment where GLib cannot resolve the current user. They can appear in an experimental sandbox. In the supported single-process configuration, make sure Hermes inherits a normal desktop environment and a valid HOME value.

A particular website is broken

Reproduce the page in the Servo revision used by Hermes, ideally with Servo's servoshell. If it fails there too, the smallest useful fix probably belongs upstream. If servoshell works while Hermes fails, include that comparison in the Hermes issue.